Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) is a tunneling protocol that may be used to encapsulate a wide variety of network layer protocols inside virtual point-to-point links over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Ethernet over Generic Routing Encapsulation (EoGRE) is a popular protocol in the provision of community Wi-Fi services in Service Provider (SP) networks as it provides a lightweight and highly scalable Layer 2 (L2) connection between clients and wireless aggregation gateways. EoGRE may be used, for example, to aggregate Wi-Fi traffic from hotspots. This enables customer premise equipment (CPE) devices to bridge Ethernet traffic coming from an end host and encapsulate the traffic in Ethernet packets over an IP GRE tunnel. When the IP GRE tunnels are terminated on a service provider broadband network gateway, the end host's Layer 2 traffic is terminated and IP services managed for the end host.
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